


Of Monsters and Men

by whytho



Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, Halloween Town 2 au, Paranatural Halloween Challenge, fun times with magic max
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-15
Updated: 2016-10-15
Packaged: 2018-08-22 14:47:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8289622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whytho/pseuds/whytho
Summary: Max figures out that he's a witch when he's twelve years old, in a new, weird place with new, weird people, and it doesn't surprise him as much as it should. “You have magical powers,” his father tells him, twisting his hands nervously like Max is going to freak out or something.





	

Max figures out that he's a witch when he's twelve years old, in a new, weird place with new, weird people, and it doesn't surprise him as much as it should. 

“You have magical powers,” his father tells him, twisting his hands nervously like Max is going to freak out or something. 

“Okay,” Max says, then goes back to manning the register. 

“Okay?” Zoey demands, slapping palms down on the counter and shaking her head. “Dad tells you you're magic and you say ‘okay?’” 

Max considers this, just for a few seconds, then shrugs. “Not like I didn't know,” he replies, looking pointedly at anything but his father. “Mom didn't exactly hide it, and people tend to notice floating and- stuff.” 

Zoey shakes her head and resumes stocking shelves. Max's father, he's sure, is staring at him- mouth open, eyes wide, the whole shebang- so he ducks his head and tries to memorize where each of the numbers are on the register. 

It works surprisingly well- in three weeks he can scan someone up like a pro, and cashiering keeps his summer busy. He gets out to Baxborough once, to see a concert with Sam and Doghouse, and when his father parks the car back in their Mayview driveway he's fairly certain he’s happier than he has been in weeks. 

It's a little worrying, sure, that he knows so few people, but Max has other things to spend his time doing. He has a job, and a brand-new spell book to read, and ninth grade to prepare for. 

When Max finds out about Halloween Town, though, he has something else to worry about. 

“There’s an entire town just- full of monsters?” he asks his father, hands gripping his plate of pizza so hard it was bending in on itself. 

“Actually, Maxwell, the correct term is ‘genetically and culturally different creatures who happened to evolve on the same planet with us,” his father tells him, then took a swig of soda straight from the bottle. “Although, yes, some people use the word monsters.”

“And they have a town, with citizens and schools and- and libraries?” Max asks. 

His father considers this, gnawing thoughtfully on the brim of bottle, then says, “Yes. Well, no, they don’t have a school, but-” 

Zoey sits bolt upright. “What do you mean they don’t have a school?” 

Looking from one child to the next, Father Puckett tells them, “Well, they don’t have that many children there- monsters don’t reproduce that easily. Plus, schools are a very human thing! Monsters have very little to do with human affairs.” 

Max locks eyes with Zoey across the table- she’s pulling on the full puppy dog face, which means that she wants something, which means that Max is going to end up helping her. He sighs. 

“Dad,” Zoey starts, still staring at Max, “Why can’t we teach the monster kids about… human affairs?” 

 

Isabel Guerra is the hottest girl Max has ever seen, by which he means that she’s literally on fire at all times. 

When his father meets her, he lunges for the fire extinguisher, but Ed Burger reaches it first- he’s only six inches tall and raining clouds of glitter, but somehow Ed able to fight off an adult man like a ninja warrior. Zoey watches, impressed. Slinking in behind it all is Isaac O’Connor, scowling and looking blue. Well, maybe it’s more like indigo- his skin color is hard to place, an ever shifting blend of turquoise and cerulean, Prussian and denim, International Klein and Majorelle. Max isn’t that good with color, really. 

“Do you want some help with that?” Isaac asks, looking at the scene in front of him and twitching his eyebrows. “I have experience in… cooling Izzy down.” 

“We’re fine,” Max tells him, although evidence reports the contrary. “We’re totally fine.” 

Zoey looks over at him from where she’s shaking hands with Isabel the phoenix and raises an eyebrow. Max presses his lips down into a frown; she smirks a little, and suddenly reminds Max of both himself and his mother. It’s not very reassuring. 

“So!” Ed chirps, now on his father’s shoulder. “Where are our rooms?” 

“Ah,” Father Puckett starts, glancing at Max, “Well. We are- we have a spell for it, though I would really recommend a professional’s help-” 

Ed and Isabel share a glance, sniggering, and Isabel says, “Ah, we’ll be fine. Our instructor is in town- he got a job at our new school- but-” 

“-We don’t need him,” Isaac finishes, leaning against the counter. He looks nonchalant, but Max is pretty sure that’s one of the facades tenth graders are infamous for. 

“Well,” Max’s father says, looking a little lost. “Well.” 

They lead the way into the upstairs apartment, an army of feet trampling up the stairs, and Max swings the hallway’s little closet door open. It’s mostly empty- a broom, some cobwebs. Max coughs. 

Isabel and Isaac and Ed exchange looks, a one-two-three of head turnings and identical expressions, before cracking knuckles and stretching arms, and then- well. Max can’t really describe what happens next- all the air in the room goes wet and heavy, like it does right before a storm. A sucking noise fills the room, faint but palpable, and the fragrant scent of woodsmoke clings to the inside of Max’s nostrils. Then, just as suddenly as it started, the world goes back to normal. The only signs of anything extraordinary happening are the smell of bonfires and the hallway stretching out before Max, well-lit and decorated like a city apartment, all white and glass. 

Isabel steps delicately over the threshold, dark foot stark against the pale floor, and smiles. “This’ll work.” 

“This’ll work very nicely,” Ed echoes, and suddenly all three of them are inside the hallway and closing the door on the Pucketts, who are all to silent to protest. 

“Well,” Max;s father says lightly. “Who would have thought monsters were fans of contemporary homes?” 

 

The first day of school is difficult, especially when you’re a new kid. It’s even more difficult when you’re a new kid towing around three other new kids that also happen to be monsters. 

The school parking is full to the brim with students and teachers milling around, exchanging first-day-of-school talk. Max grabs Isabel and Ed by the hems of their shirts, tight, and gestures for Isaac to do the same to him. “Look,” he tells them in a low, quiet voice. “High school was not designed to be kind to kids. It is designed to break you, and I’m sorry to tell you this, but there will be no welcoming committee, no chirpy tour guide, no club fair for you to make friends. You are on your own in the savannah, and let me tell you this-” he glances at each face, making eye contact for at least a second or two- “if you show any weakness, you become a slow gazelle. Slow gazelles die.” 

“Hi!” says a chirpy voice behind him, and Max breaks the mock-huddle to turn around and face its owner- a blonde girl with curly hair and an impossibly bright smile on her face. “I’m Suzy,” the girl tells them, beaming, “And I’m here to help welcome you to the school!” 

They stare at her. The girl’s smile doesn’t waver. “You are Maxwell Puckett and Co, correct?” 

“...Yes,” Isabel replies eventually. 

“We’re the welcome tour!” Suzy replies. “Me and Collin-” she gestures to the small boy behind her, one Max hadn’t noticed- “are going to give you a tour, and then at the end of the day we can meet up at the club fair!” 

Turning on her heel, she strides off, and Collin gestures for them to follow. Ed and Isabel do; Isaac stops for long enough to smirk at Max and say, “Savannah, huh?” 

 

 

It’s official- Suzy is weird. Not as weird as Izzy and Ed, sure, but still weird. Her tour of the school mostly consists of telling them urban legends and teaching them to break into the library, and then she shows them a tight, cramped closet that she declares, “the best room in the entire school.” 

Then she shoves their schedules in their faces and pushes them out the room, leaving Isabel stunned and Ed grinning, wide and manic. It's not a reassuring look, but Max takes what he can get. 

“Alright,” he says. shuffling through the pile of papers Suzy thrust upon him. “We all have the same homeroom, which doesn't make any sense because we’re in different grades, but whatever. Now we’ve gotta find a… Mr. Spender.” 

Isabel's eyes light up, and even Isaac looks mildly excited.

“Mr. Spender?” Ed asks, grinning even wider, and suddenly Max is ever so nervous. No one will tell him who Mr. Spender is on the way to his classroom. When they finally knock on his door Isaac is practically vibrating, he's so excited, and Max really hopes monsters aren't told children's stories about evil men named Mr. Spender that eventually get eaten by the heroes of the fairytale. Eating a teacher would not make the greatest first impression. 

The door to Mr. Spender’s classroom swings open to reveal a tall, blond man in huge black glasses. When he sees them, he stops, and then his face is breaking into a smile and he's tackling all three monsters into a hug, gathering them all up so tight they look smushed. Max is still very confused. 

The man who must be Mr. Spender notices Max and breaks off the hug. “Ah,” he says, “You must be Maxwell.” 

Max doesn't respond. 

“Max, this is our teacher!” Ed tells him chirpily. “The one who taught us back in Halloween Town, remember?” 

Max does- they mentioned having a teacher when they transformed Max’s closet, but they didn't say anything about him deciding to work at Mayview High. Although, Max thinks, his father might have made an offhanded comment about someone coming to help them out. Max doesn't really pay much attention to his father’s offhanded comments. 

Mr. Spender must notice his discomfort, because he quickly says, “Ah, well, children, how about we head somewhere a little more private? This isn't the place to discuss such matters.” Quickly, he herds them not towards his room like Max would expect, but across the hall, gathering them around a plain, unremarkable locker and fiddling with the lock. 

“Remember this passcode, children- 4438,” Mr. Spender tells them, glancing into their eyes like the combination to a locker is life or death. Then he swings the locker open, and suddenly his seriousness makes a lot more sense. 

Inside the locker is an entire room- a small, brightly lit space filled with suits of armour and a couch, with high arched ceilings and stone walls like a fifteenth century castle. Max is pretty sure his jaw drops open, because an entire hall inside a locker would take almost as much magic as a hallway inside a closet, except there were three people performing that and Max is pretty sure Mr. Spender was the only person doing this. 

No one else seems to have the same shock, though; Mr. Spender just walks in like he owns the place, which he might, and Ed, Isabel, and Isaac seem to see stuff like this every day, which they might. 

“This is our private place, children,” Mr. Spender tells them. “I had to do some wrangling to get a locker for us- as far as administration is concerned, you're all part of the Activity Club- but now we can come in here and relax whenever we want, provided we don't have class.” 

With that, he tugs off his hair to reveal a head full of snakes and sinks into the big yellow couch, sighing gratefully. 

Max is, again, shocked. 

 

Suzy corners Max after lunch- he'd spent it with a group of kids who all seemed relatively nice, though some of them were slightly weird- and pulls him away from Violet and Cody. 

“Listen, Max,” she says, leaning against a locker, “I don't know about you, but I wouldn't go around joining any clubs until you've checked out the club fair after school.” 

“Oh, really?” Max asks. “That's a shame- I've already joined the school store, the softfootbasebasket team, and the motley assortment of bullies gang.” He nods over to the group in question, who he'd already gotten into a skirmish with, and the leader glares at him. 

Suzy presses her lips together, frowning at him. “No, Maxwell,” she says, “I meant the Activity Club. I saw you and the other new kids go into Spender’s locker, and believe me when I say that it looks endlessly shady.” 

“You caught us,” Max says dryly. “We were all just cramming ourselves into the locker so that the bullies wouldn't have to do it later.” 

“Sarcasm doesn't suit you, Max,” Suzy replies airily, then glares at him for a couple seconds. 

“Don't worry about it, Suze,” Max tells her, thinking about parting her on the shoulder. He decides against it- it'd be like patting a mountain lion, or a pregnant cat, or any number of things that could attack you. “You were probably just imagining it.”

He makes to leave, but Suzy stops him before he can- a right hand on his shoulder and a glare directed into his eyes. “Max?” Suzy says, voice quiet. “Watch your back.” 

 

 

The Halloween dance was coming up, Max learns a few weeks later. It was an entirely un-spooky affair, according to Lisa, but enjoyable nonetheless, and all Ed would talk about for a good couple of days was who was going with who and decorations and the price of tickets. 

“We’ve had a school dance before,” Isabel tells him, curled up on the couch in their locker. “I mean, we tried, but then our parents invited their all their friends and it just became a town square dancing competition.” 

.”I-” Max started, then cut himself off. He’d never been in a town as small as that, where your parents knew everyone and school dances were an unheard of luxury. The nearest thing to friendliness in Baxborough was the occasional block party, and even that was an awkward, stilted affair, with conversations about the weather and the like. 

“But this’ll be fun!” Ed enthused, then winked at Max. “Thinkin’ about askin’ anyone?” 

Wordless, Max shook his head. Ed scrunched up his eyebrows at him, like, _That’s a shame_ , and sighed. From the couch, Isaac snorted. 

 

 

The night of the dance was, in all honesty, a mess. Violet had invited everyone to her house to get ready and eat Chinese, so they all struggle to eat noodles without dripping them on their clothes while Lisa finishes up everyone’s makeup. Johnny and Stephen start an orange chicken war, and everyone faces the consequences, and Suzy somehow owns concealer in every skin tone imaginable. Their multiple cars, too, were a disaster- Max rides with his father, Cody, Violet, Ollie, and Dimitri, and spends the entire time trying not groan at lame puns. Cody thinks they’re hilarious, which might make it worse. 

They group back together at the school’s front doors, a mess of plaid and sequins and, in Isabel’s case, a few feathers, for pictures. It’s a tight mess of giggles and bunny ears and Lisa trying to fix Max’s lip gloss, but it’s fun, and he likes it. Even Suzy shooting the occasional glare his way can’t ruin it. 

They split into smaller group photos- the Journalism Club does one, as does Johnny and his gang, and then Spender squeezes the Activity Club together for a couple pictures. Ed insists on them lining up like it’s a couple’s shoot- Max’s hands on Isaac’s waist, Isabel’s on his, and Isaac’s on Ed’s- and they all turn to the camera and fake smiles. 

“So,” Max whispers, “How do you like Humansville?” 

Isaac doesn’t answer, but Isabel huffs a laugh and Ed, straight faced, replies, “I dunno, it could do with a bit more magic.” 

 

 

When Max gets home that night, the first thing he does is sink into the couch. Zoey hovers over him for a few seconds before sitting down gently and asking, in that smirky, sarcastic way she’s discovered, “So, how was the dance?” 

Max considers this for a few seconds, then gives her a short, small smile. “Good. It went… good.”

**Author's Note:**

> okay a) the club fair was 100% arranged by Suzy and it had like. a table for journalism club and a table for band and that was it and only three people showed 
> 
> b) this actually has nothing to do with Halloween Town 2. nothing. im so sorry i lied to all of you
> 
> c) isaac is a water naiad but he 110% controls the weather bc he wants to like. everyone wonders how he does it but in reality it's bc he's salty and decided that he would, so he does. ed is a pixie and enjoys being tiny and flying around over isaac and getting glitter over him.


End file.
